But our author did not end his labours here. Having investigated all that seemed to lie within his power in regard to the melody of speech, his next attempt was to discover if possible the laws which govern its rhythm; and in this attempt I believe he fully succeeded; for his system is, I am convinced, founded on truth, and based on physiological laws. I shall reserve all explanation of it until I come to my Lecture on Poise, only remarking for the present that it was a system always maintained and warmly advocated by the late Mr. Thelwall within these walls, as it always had been by his father previously.

Joshua Steele states that when his system of noting the melody and rhythm was explained by him fully to David Garrick, the great tragedian, among many judicious remarks which he made, and questions that he put, asked the following: "Supposing a speech by him were noted according to these rules in the exact manner in which he spoke it, would any other person by the help of these rules be able to pronounce his words in the same tones and manner, exactly as the speech had been originally delivered?" To which Steele answered, "Supposing a firstrate musician had written down a piece of music, which he had played exquisitely well on an exceedingly fine-toned violin; another performer on an ordinary fiddle might undoubtedly play every note the same as the great master, though, perhaps, with less ease and elegance of expression; but still, notwithstanding his correctness in the tune and manner, nothing could prevent the audience from perceiving that the natural tone of his instrument was execrable. So, though these rules will enable a master to teach a just application of the rules when the voice should rise in the musical scale, and when it should fall, though it will make the pupil acquainted with the laws of poise, emphasis, and all the other proper expressions of the voice in reading and speaking, which will go a great way in the improvement of Elocution, yet they cannot give a full, sweet, and flexible voice, where it has been denied by nature.

A very wise and judicious answer of Mr. Steele, which puts elocution in its true light, and gives it neither more nor less than its just claim and assigns it what is its undoubted due. Under a proper system of instruction, and with careful regular practice on the part of the pupil, even voices weak in power and poor in quality may be much strengthened and improved, and an indifferent reader or speaker rendered much better; but still, where the vocal and speech organs are naturally ill-formed or defective, or if taste, imagination, and feeling be wanting, not the most

skilful master in the world will be able to make such a pupil an absolutely good reader or speaker.

That the Greeks and Romans in the old classic times knew perfectly well what we now call the inflections and modulations of the voice and the uses served by them in oratory, though they have left no analysis or system of principles in regard to their application for our instruction, is perfectly evident from what Quinctilian says, for in Book XI., c. 3, occurs the following passage, "The second observation on the true management of the voice, relates to variety, which alone constitutes an eloquent delivery. And let it not be imagined that the equability of the voice already recommended is inconsistent with variety; for unevenness is the fault opposite to equability, and the opposite to variety is that monotony which consists in one unvaried form or tone of expression. The art of varying the tones of the voice, not only affords pleasure and relief to the hearer; but by the alternation of exercise relieves the speaker, as changes. of posture and motions, of standing, walking, sitting, and lying are grateful, and we cannot for a long time submit to any one of them. The voice is to be adapted to the subject and the feelings of the mind so as not to be at variance with the expressions: this is the great art. should, therefore, guard against that uniformity of character called by the Greeks monotony (μονοειδής). . . Even in the same passages, and in the expression of the same feelings, there must be in the voice certain nice changes, according as the dignity of the language, the nature of the sentiments, the beginning, the conclusion, or the transitions require. For painters, who confine themselves only to one colour, nevertheless bring out some parts more strongly and touch others more faintly; and this they are obliged to do, in order to preserve the just forms and lines of their figures."

We

The first writer who took up Joshua Steele's theory in regard to these inflections of the voice and expanded them into a very full and elaborate treatise, was John Walker, the author of the well-known pronouncing dictionary. It may be read with some interest by the curious in such matters, but it is so exceedingly elaborate in the niceties to which it carries the rules for inflection of the voice in regard to almost every conceivable form of sentence, that I could not recommend it to any one just entering on the study of elocution, as a work likely to be of much practical utility. It has, however, some useful remarks in regard to the theory of inflection, and the uses it serves in speaking and reading, which I think I may endeavour to epitomise with some advantage.

Mr. Walker introduces the subject by showing how necessary proper pauses are in order to convey the sense of any sentence which we speak or read, and then goes on to assert that besides these pauses, which indicate a greater or less separation of the parts of a sentence, and a conclusion of the whole, there are certain slides of the voice, or inflections (as they are termed) which accompany those pauses, which, indeed, are as necessary to the full sense of the sentence as the pauses themselves: for, however exactly we may pause between those parts which are separable, if we do not pause with such an inflection of voice as is suited to the sense, the composition we read will not only want its true meaning,

but will have a meaning, indeed, very different from that intended by the' writer. How desirable, therefore, must any method be that can notify to us that particular inflection of voice which is best suited to convey to the hearer the full sense of the passage read or spoken! But it is not unlikely that this at first sight may be pronounced by some to be impossible. What! (it will be said) will any one pretend to convey to us upon paper, all that force, beauty, variety, and harmony, which a good reader throws into composition when he enters into the full spirit of his author, and displays every part of it to the best advantage? No, it may be answered, this is not attempted, but because all this cannot be done, is it impossible to do any part of it? Because the exact time of pausing is not always denoted by the points in use, is it valueless to have any marks of pausing at all? Because the precise degree of emphatic force is not conveyed by printing some words in a different character, cannot we sometimes assist the reader in apprehending the comparative force or feebleness of pronunciation by printing the emphatic words in. letters of a different type? The practice of this in books of instruction sufficiently shows it is not entirely useless; and if executed with more judgment, there is little doubt of its being rendered still more useful.

The truth is, something relative to the pronunciation can be conveyed by written words, and something cannot. The pauses between sentences and members of sentences may be conveyed; the emphasis on any particular word in a sentence may be conveyed; and it is presumed it can be also demonstrated that certain inflections of the voice which show the import of the pauses, form the harmony of a cadence, distinguish emphasis into different kinds, and give each kind its specific and determinate meaning, may be as clearly conveyed upon paper as any of the foregoing elements in pronunciation.

Though they were contemporaries, it is rather curious that neither in the elaborate works of Steele nor Walker do we find any allusion made by one to the other; and of the theory of the poise, the distinctive feature in Steele's "Prosodia Rationalis," and on which he based his whole system of measure in speech, Walker appears to be entirely ignorant. But Steele's theory and definition of the inflections he accepts fully; for he admits that all vocal sounds are capable of being divided into two kinds, viz. musical sounds and speaking sounds, and his definition is just the same as Steele's, for he says that musical sounds are such as continue a given time on the precise point of the musical scale, and leap, as it were, from one note to another; while speaking sounds, instead of dwelling on the note they begin with, slide either upwards or downwards to the neighbouring notes without, save on very rare occasions, any perceptible rest on any; so that speaking and musical sounds are essentially distinct; the former being generally in motion from the moment they commence; the latter usually being at rest for some given time on one precise note. The difficulty of arresting speaking sounds for examination, he says, has made all authors suppose it impossible to give any such distinct account of them, as to be of use in speaking and reading: and, indeed, the wonderful variety of tones which a good reader or speaker throws into delivery, and of which it is impossible to convey any idea but by imitation, has led us

easily to suppose that nothing at all of this variety can be defined and reduced to rules. But when we consider that whether words are pronounced in a high or low key; in a loud or soft tone; whether they are pronounced swiftly or slowly, forcibly or feebly; they must necessarily be pronounced either sliding upwards or sliding downwards, or else go into a monotone; when we consider all this we shall find that the primary division of all speaking sounds is into the upward and downward slides of the voice; and that whatever other diversity of time, tone, force, &c., may be added to speaking or reading, it must necessarily be chiefly conveyed by these two slides. Consequently, these two slides, or inflections of the voice are the axis, as it were, on which the variety, power, melody, and general effect of all speaking and reading must turn. They may be considered as the great outlines of pronunciation; and if these outlines can be tolerably conveyed to a reader, they must be of nearly the same use to him that the rough draught of a picture is to a pupil in the art of painting.

I trust, therefore, now, that you clearly understand what an inflection of the voice is; that it is not the key or pitch of voice in which the whole word is pronounced, neither is it that loudness or softness which may accompany any key; but that the ordinary simple rising or falling inflection is just that upward or downward slide which the voice makes in pronouncing a word or clause of a sentence; and which is specially perceptible even to the unpractised ear, when the vowel in the word on which the inflection chiefly takes place happens to be long in point of quantity—as when I ask this question, " Does Cæsar deserve fáme or blame ?" I am sure if you listen to me, or if you pronounced the question yourselves, you cannot but perceive that from the beginning of the word "fáme" till its close the voice is sliding upward in the musical scale; whilst on the contrary in pronouncing the word "blame" the voice, from the commencement to the end of the word, was sliding as evidently downward in the scale.

In my next Lecture I hope to be able to give you some plain general rules for the right use of these inflections; and, in drawing my remarks to a close this evening, I would only impress upon you that so important is the right use of these two inflections, that the moment they are neglected our reading and speaking become expressionless and monotonous; and if they are misemployed, the cultivated taste is not only offended, but the sense and meaning of the sentences we pronounce often totally destroyed. If the meaning of a passage should require the voice to use the rising inflection on any particular word, either in the middle or at the end of a phrase, variety and melody demand the falling inflection on one of the preceding words; and, on the contrary, if completion of sense, melody, emphasis, or any other principle should require that the falling inflection should be used on any particular word, it will be found that the word immediately preceding almost always demands the rising inflection; so that, as a general rule, it may be said that these two inflections of the voice are, in point of order, nearly alternate.

You will notice that this is very observable when we read a sentence and discover that we have made a mistake in the connection between

the clauses, either by supposing the sense is to be continued when it really is completed, or by supposing it completed when it really is to be continued; for in either of these cases we find it necessary to return pretty far back to some of the preceding words in order to give them such inflections as are suitable to those which the sense requires on the succeeding words.

We are indebted to America for what is, as far as I know, the most elaborate work that has yet appeared on the inflections of the voice, viz., the large 8vo. volume, entitled "The Philosophy of the Human Voice," by Dr. James Rush, of Philadelphia, and which has now gone through, I believe, eight or nine editions. It is well worthy perusal by those who wish to study the subject in all its minuteness of detail.

Dr. Rush invented a peculiar form of notation of his own for the purpose of typifying the mode in which the vowel sounds in the music of speech seem, as it were, to gradually end in what he terms a vanishing point," of which the subjoined is an illustration.

Do deeds to make Hea-ven weep, all earth

a-mazed;

Another work which may be studied with the greatest advantage, and which we owe to France, is the " Traité Théorique et Pratique de la Déclamation pour la Chaise, pour le Barreau, et à l'usage de ceux qui lisent en public," by the Abbé Thibout, a new edition of which, by M. De Pradel, has lately been published.